do evil continually," and draw down punishment fuited to fuch aggravated guilt.

The Prophet Zechariah, after defcribing "the plague wherewith the Lord will fmite all the people that have fought against Jerufalem," adds, " And it fhall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerufalem, fhall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of Hofts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles. And it fhall be that whofo will not come up of all the families of the earth unto Jerufalem, to worship the King, the Lord of Hofts, even upon them fhall there be no rain. And if the family of Egypt go not up, and come not, that have no rain, there shall be the plague wherewith the Lord will fmite the Heathen that come not up to keep the feast of the tabernacles. This fhall be the punishment of Egypt, and the punishment of all nations that come not up to the feast of tabernacles. In that day fhall there be upon the bells of the horses, holiness to the Lord;" that is, every thing in this holy city fhall be fanctified and devoted to God, for "there fhall in no wife enter in any thing that defileth.'

This

This Prophecy, therefore, ftrongly confirms the opinion, that the world in general will continue to be a state of probation, but that visible rewards and punishments fhall be the immediate confequences of obedience or disobedience to God (as when the Jews were under his immediate government), when " the Lord fhall reign on earth." It should be also remarked, that Satan is only permitted to " go forth among the nations without the City;" and that as foon as he has "gathered them to the fiege," or attempted to disturb the peace of the " camp of the faints," "" fire defcends from heaven, and devours these incorrigible finners," and the final judgment, the end of the days of grace-the deftruction of this corrupted world, and fin, and death-the everlasting punishment of Satan, and all his incorrigible followers-and the completion of the happiness of the faints, by their admiffion into everlasting blifs and glory in the heavens, immediately fucceed.

But granting for a moment the supposition, that the fuperior light and extraordinary advantages extended over the whole world. during this happy period, in a manner

1

Rev. xx. 8, &c.

utterly

66 our

utterly incomprehenfible to us, should gradually effect that total change which is the ground of the objection, it may perhaps be obviated. Let us fuppofe mankind in general, exalted in their conceptions of the Deity, and of the nature of real happiness-established in their faith, and refined in their morals, by a long course of continual miracles, by Divine and fuperhuman aid, example and inftruction, and by the imprisonment of adverfary, the Devil, who now walketh about the earth as a roaring lion feeking whom he may devour"-the common temptations of the world might not have power to touch the fublimity of their virtue, and Divine justice, "whose ways are equal" towards all his creatures, and who ever balances our temptations to evil with our powers of refifting it, may fee, that Satan alone can roufe the latent feed of corruption, and subject them to the allotted trials of this mortal ftate. It is expressly declared, that Satan" should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be expired, and after that he must be loofed a little feafon;" furnished probably with a greater degree of power than ever, in order to proportion the temptations to fin, by the extraordinary advantages enjoyed by those who live in fuch an improved and happy state of the

Z 2

the world. But only for " a little feafon"a fhort time will be fufficient to determine the future lot of these people, whether we fuppofe Satan to find many ready to enlist under his banner, or none but thofe of apparently eftablished virtue. For under these peculiar circumstances it is natural to conclude, that the transition from faith and virtue to blafphemous rebellion and vice, would be rapid in those who fall, and the adherence to the Religion of Chrift firm and decided in those who ftand, in this hour of temptation."

66

I pafs by the objections to the doctrine of à Millennium, which are derived from metaphyfical difcuffions, because I confider Scripture as the only folid ground for our ideas upon the fubject of a future ftate. nothing of the nature of beings

We know

purely fpiritual; but we know that man was originally created a compound being-that our Lord arofe from the dead, and afcended into heaven with a body, and is to appear again as the Son of Man: we must therefore, I think, believe that the union of the foul with a glorified body is the perfection of human nature; and it follows, that our happiness will be fuited to that nature. But, polluted as we are by fin, and tainted with corruption, we cannot know

much

much of the nature of fuch beings, or of such happiness. Thofe, however, appear to be little acquainted with mankind, who do not perceive, that the prospect of a kind of happinefs, of which they can form fome idea, will influence their conduct more powerfully than the promise of a happiness of which they can form. none. The fenfual Paradise of Mahomet, and the Purgatory of Antichristian Rome, have in fact operated more forcibly upon the hopes and fears of man, than the diftant view of the Eternal Beatific Vifion, after the fleep of the foul till the day of judgment. But this was not the doctrine of the pureft ages of the Church . The crown was held out as the immediate reward of martyrdom in the caufe of Chrift; the early Chriftians looked for immediate admiffion into the presence of their Lord; they expected immediately to join the fociety of bleffed fpirits, and wait with them for the

The doctrine held by the firft Chriftians appears to be tranfmitted to us in the Apostles' Creed, as well as by Ecclefiaftical Hiftory. "I believe in the Communion of Saints, the Refurrection of the Body, and the Life everlafting," may furely be understood as pointing to the immediate admiffion to the fociety of bleffed fpirits-the resurrection of the body at the coming of our Lord-and the entrance into an everlasting life in heaven.